Wonder how your financial statements will look under GASB 34? Well, if you plow through the 403 pages of Statement 34, you'll find some "illustrative" financial statements in Appendix C for "Sample City" ( pages 199 to 297). But what will these look like for a "real" city? At February's CSMFO conference in Pasadena, the City of Tracy (with a lot of help from their auditors, Maze & Associates, and an engineering consultant for their infrastructure stuff, Berryman & Henigar) presented their financial statements for June 30, 1999 using the "GASB 34" reporting model, including infrastructure. These "sample" statements (and the engineer's PowerPoint presentation on developing infrastructure information) are on the CSMFO web site in the "resource room" under "CSMFO 2000 - Conference Presentations." www.csmfo.org/resourceroom So, does the City of Tracy look better or worse? Short Answer: Neither, just different! SHORT NOTE: CSMFO's Efforts to Help our Members Implement GASB 34 This email - and one you received yesterday on the GFOA's upcoming Internet training sessions on June 28 - are just part of our ongoing efforts to help our members in implementing GASB 34. The "task force" is looking at areas where we can "add value" to the work of others (like the GFOA) in doing this. As described below, we have three major goals in our overall work program: awareness, resource identification and technical training. 1. Awareness: Help finance professionals and policy makers understand the major changes the new model will bring - and why additional resources will be needed to implement it. We plan to develop tools to help members understand the new reporting model themselves, and then explain it to elected officials and senior managers so they'll better appreciate the importance and significance of the change - and why additional resources will be needed to make it. Like the "Y2k Compliance" plans we all just went through, this "awareness" phase will be essential in getting the resources we'll need to implement this change. In conjunction with the forthcoming "Elected Officials Guide" on GASB 34 from the GFOA, we plan to develop "boilerplate" hand-outs and PowerPoint presentations for this purpose, along with some suggestions on how, when and where to use these. We're also planning on creating a "speakers bureau" that members can draw on if they think this will be helpful in presenting this information to policy makers. We hope to have some draft materials for the Board's consideration at their June 1 meeting. 2. Resource Identification: Identify resources that members can turn to for assistance in implementing GASB 34. Examples of this include adding a "GASB 34 Implementation Assistance" category to our "Professional Services Directory" on our web site; and placing examples (like this one from the City of Tracy) on our web site. 3. Technical Training: Work closely with others (such as the League and GFOA) as they develop and present technical training and resource materials - and make sure our members know about these training opportunities, and have good access to them. Examples of this include our recent notice (and downloadable registration forms) on the April 21 workshop in San Rafael (which will feature Tom Allen, GASB Chair) and the GFOA's Internet training on June 28. Additionally, we are likely to directly sponsor our own training programs at the annual conference or through "bridge calls" like we have on "hot topics" in the past. And through periodic emails to our members like this one! Bill Statler, Director of Finance City of San Luis Obispo 990 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Phone: (805) 781-7125 Fax: (805) 781-7401 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
